


the bones of the father (belong to his daughter)

by SparkleMoose



Series: Still Blooming [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Character Study, Complicated Relationships, Father-Daughter Relationship, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Gen, Miqo'te Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), but you still have fatherly feelings for her because /thats your kid/, the thing where your kid is reborn but still shattered and you dont think of her as your kid really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25838968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparkleMoose/pseuds/SparkleMoose
Summary: Hades had a daughter once. A bright shining soul that was Sundered with the rest.Emet-Selch had a daughter once. He wonders what cruel twist of fate has bent her toward the light.
Relationships: Solus zos Galvus | Emet-Selch & Warrior of Light
Series: Still Blooming [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1874932
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	the bones of the father (belong to his daughter)

_"Father!" A teenager girl rushes toward Hades, her white mask a startling contrast with her glowing gold and amber eyes. In her hands is a glowing creature with a gem embedded on it's head. "Look! My newest creation got approved! I call it a Carbuncle!"_

* * *

Hades had been proud in that moment, proud of his daughter's first approved creation being both useful and beautiful. He had been proud of her mind and her manner and he can still remember that pride swelling in his chest.

He remembers. With each child he sires he remembers his first. His Circe. His darling dark daughter. Each child Emet sires he compares to her, each time he watches one of his children die he thinks of her death.

Could I have stopped her? Emet-Selch wonders, Tempered though he is, Could I have made her stay? It is a personal failing, he knows, that he could not convince his nightingale daughter to stay. It is his failure as a father that let his last words to her be cruel.

Die then, he remembers telling her, You will not find the answers you seek.

And she had snarled, had called him monstrous before throwing the mask he had made for her on the ground, gold and amber eyes glowing fierce at him, and spinning on her heel to leave.

I might die, she had said before leaving, But I not before I exhaust all options.

* * *

The Warrior of Light is a curiosity, one Emet-Selch has not paid attention to before. There have always been heroes, each era will have their own warriors who stand against the dark and each time they will fall. Emet-Selch knows the cycle well, he was one of the ones who started it after all.

The Warrior of Light is a curiosity, one that glares at him with all too familiar eyes. Her soul, still fragmented but more whole than those around her shines bright and terrible and Emet-Selch aches.

Circe, he almost calls her the words no the tip of his tongue, Daughter.

The woman - Fleur she is called though that is not her true name - glares at him, as though daring him to speak a lost name.

Emet-Selch laughs.

“Ah,” he says, his tone unwillingly softer as he looks at the shard of his first and true daughter, “It would seem you have accomplished the impossible again, child.”

She bares her teeth at him, the aether around her darkening in anger for a moment and Emet-Selch is once again reminded this is not his daughter.

Not yet.

One day she will be Circe again.

He cannot wait for that day.

* * *

_A toddler clings to Hades’ robes as they wander around the city of Amaurot. The child has dark hair and bright mismatched eyes, one a brilliant gold and the other a dark amber in color._

_“Father.” The child looks up at Hades who bends down to speak with her. “Up.”_

_“Ah,” Hades gently scowls, “Use your words.”_

_“Please pick me up?” The toddler asks, bright eyes earnest, “I want to see the glowing flowers.”_

_Hades smiles and lifts his daughter so she can better see Halmarut’s newest creation, a type of flower that glows in the dark of their city._

_The joy that dawns on his daughters face, brings a light to Hades’ heart._

* * *

He watches her, this being that is and is not his daughter. He watches her as she slays Warden after Warden, as the light fractures the brilliant blue of her soul. Emet-Selch watches as his daughter treats the child, Minfilia or Ryne the name matters not to Emet-Selch, with a gentleness that belies the danger in her hands.

How many has she killed? He cannot help but wonder, How bloodied are her hands? His daughter is dangerous he knows, but the fact she has been blessed by that infernal Hydaelyn leaves a bitter taste in Emet-Selch’s mouth. It makes him want to tear the Crystal apart himself for Her daring to commit the unforgivable act of daring to lay a hand on his daughter.

My daughter was made a warrior, he thinks sourly, She should have been treated like a princess.

It figures, that in all the Empire’s and Kingdom’s he’s created that his first child would never be born again to him.

* * *

The light is killing her. It’s killing Hades’ child and Emet-Selch can do not but watch as she forces the light from the Exarch and back into her battered body.

“No,” she tells the Exarch, “No.”

Emet-Selch’s fingers act on their own as he raises his gun and shoots down the Exarch, not a fatal wound, but one that will get him out of the way none the less, and then he raises the gun again and his daughter-

His daughter looks at him with such fury and hate in her eyes in that moment that it makes him pause.

That’s the only moment she needs to strike and Hades feels the axe cut through him, feels it sunder his very being apart.

“I’m not your daughter,” Fleur tells him, “Not anymore.”

* * *

_"Father," Circe had written to him during the Final Days, "Thank you for everything, know that I will always love you."_

**Author's Note:**

> ITS SAD PATCH FIC HOURS LADS. getting this out of my system before 5.3 comes and rips me a new one.  
> also i still have to do cinder drift but it...scary....
> 
> anyway have sad father daughter things and also emet being sad and fleur being an ass but she is always an ass its why she and esti get along so well.


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